Corruption scandals surrounding the Congress Party-led government, promises of inclusive growth and job creation, and calibrated anti-Muslim dog whistles helped Narendra Modi rise to power and become the prime minister of India in 2014. And there was another factor: The Dalits, India’s most oppressed community, whom the Hindu caste system relegates to the lowest rung, doubled their votes for his… Read more »
LAHORE: Pakistan on Wednesday decided not to lift its airspace ban for Indian flights till May 30, as Islamabad is awaiting the outcome of the Lok Sabha polls in India. Pakistan fully closed its airspace after an Indian Air Force strike on a Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp in Balakot on February 26. However, Pakistan opened its airspace for all flights… Read more »
With an increase in hate crimes against Muslims in India in recent years, some fear the world’s largest democracy is becoming dangerously intolerant under the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan reports. It happened just days before the first phase of voting in the Indian elections. A Muslim trader in the north-eastern state of Assam was… Read more »
To finish off the last regional report I stuck to Afghanistan. This week there has been a lot of discourse between the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban, and sadly the outcome was not what the world was hoping for. The Afghani government held a grand council meeting this week calling in attempts to talk about the possibility of a… Read more »
A report by the Pentagon on civilian deaths caused by the US military says 120 civilians were killed and 65 others injured by US military actions in 2018 – but human rights groups say that figure is far lower than their estimates. The annual, Congress-mandated, report, released on Thursday, showed a sharp decline from 2017 in which the Pentagon says 793… Read more »
For the first time, more civilians have been killed by Afghan forces this year than by insurgent groups, the UN says. In a report, the international body said pro-government forces were responsible for 54% of civilian deaths during the first three months of 2019. Tadamichi Yamamoto, the UN’s special representative for Afghanistan, called the latest figures “shocking”. The findings come… Read more »
The Taliban in Afghanistan has rejected calls for a Ramadan ceasefire and attacked the traditional council, or loya jirga, which made the proposal. The grand assembly is meeting in Kabul this week to discuss peace and called for an immediate ceasefire between the government and militants. President Ashraf Ghani agreed to a truce provided it was not “one-sided”. But the… Read more »
An Afghan grand council convened by President Ashraf Ghani ended Friday with a resounding call for peace with the Taliban and a promise from the president to free 175 Taliban prisoners ahead of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month that starts next week. The council – known as Loya Jirga – brought together more than 3,200 politicians, tribal elders, prominent figures… Read more »
India’s fast-growing hotel chain Oyo will expand in Europe with the purchase of an Amsterdam-based vacation rental firm.
India’s main opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was all but written off after his crushing defeat in the last elections. But he has energised a struggling Congress party and increasingly set the agenda with a combative campaign. The BBC’s Geeta Pandey visits his constituency to assess whether he can unseat the prime minister this time.